“Information Is a Human Right”
North Korean refugees have found creative ways to smuggle information into one of the most censored countries in the world. New legislation will make their activism more difficult – but they are determined to continue their work. Read More
A censored state
North Korea is the 2nd most censored country in the world according to the Committee to Protect Journalists. Not only are foreign news correspondents prevented from freely reporting on what happens inside North Korea; the North Korean regime is also incredibly adept at preventing its citizens from gaining access to media from the outside world.“The lack of access to the internet is probably the most obvious information resource missing from the lives of ordinary North Koreans,” Ed Jones, a Seoul based photojournalist whose work has required him to visit North Korea many times in recent years, says. “This is evident to me first and foremost in conversations when the other person has never heard of references to internet resources and services.”
Virtually all of the country’s news media comes from the Korean Central News Agency which acts as a mouthpiece for the state.
“The lack of access to the internet is probably the most obvious information resource missing.”
“There is plenty of outside information,” Jones says, “though of course its dissemination must be sanctioned and steered in a direction deemed by the relevant ministries to be in the best interests of the party and the people.”For example, when former US President Trump met with North Korean President Kim Jong Un in Singapore in 2018, North Korean news services publicized the event in newspapers and broadcast footage of it on tv news channels, but in a carefully curated form that was released days after the event took place.
“The delay in broadcasting is interesting because it clearly shows that there is essentially no risk of ordinary people learning of outside events in real time,” Jones says.
Other than what is broadcast with state approval, outside information is essentially contraband, and possessing or spreading foreign media comes with heavy consequences for North Korean citizens.
According to a report by South Korean news agency Yonhap News, an updated “reactionary thought law” introduced in North Korea in December 2020 makes the act of consuming South Korean media, such as tv dramas, punishable by prison sentences of up to 15 years, and the act of importing or disseminating said media possibly punishable by execution.
Possessing or spreading foreign media comes with heavy consequences.
Kim Il-sung Square in central Pyongyang, North Korea, is named after the country’s founding leader, Kim Il-sung. © Adobe 
Military parade in Pyongyang, North Korea.
© Micha Brändli/UnsplashInformation is a human right
Despite brutal censorship laws that have been enforced in the country for decades, it appears that the desire for access to foreign media continues to grow among younger North Koreans.One project fueling the flow of foreign media into the country is Flash Drives for Freedom, which collects donated USB sticks, wipes them, and sends them to activists in South Korea who upload information, then send the drives over to North Korea.
Jiye Seong has been Flash Drives for Freedom’s project manager since 2018. According to Seong, the program was launched organically when members of the Human Rights Foundation learned about North Korean defectors and activists who had devised ways to smuggle USB sticks into North Korea.
“We don’t choose any of the content,” Seong says about what goes onto the flash drives.
Music videos and tv dramas may not sound like the kind of content worth taking severe risks to import, but for young North Koreans this kind of media can be life changing.
“Our partners communicate that they want to see, like the latest South Korean pop music videos or some tv show, and I think our partners try to include informative content like Wikipedia pages in Korean that are available offline, as well as documentaries of historical events, which are portrayed in a very different and inaccurate way in North Korea.”Music videos and tv dramas may not sound like the kind of content worth taking severe risks to import, but for young North Koreans this kind of media can be life changing.
Liberty in North Korea, an organization that works closely with North Korean defectors, produced a documentary about Millennials who grew up in North Korea called “The Jangmadang Generation.” In it a woman named Danbi Kim recounts what it was like to illegally watch a tv drama with her friends in North Korea.
“When there were street scenes like this, we would focus more on the surroundings than on the main characters,” Kim explains. “Like how are there so many cars and what clothes the people passing by are wearing...There are so many streets with tall buildings...There’s no way it can be a movie set...You realize how well South Koreans and other foreigners live.”
Sokeel Park is the Liberty in North Korea’s South Korea Country Director. In his experience working with North Korean defectors, Park has seen the impact of foreign media firsthand.
“Learning more about South Korea and China allows North Koreans to think more about their lives and how they might be different in another country,” Park says. “That can motivate people to try and effect change.”
Ultimately, Jiye Seong and the people working with Flash Drives for Freedom are not concerned about what kind of media North Koreans want to see. They are simply concerned with the fact that people are being denied access to information.
“We believe access to information is a fundamental human right,” Seong says.
Every USB that makes it into North Korea has the potential to change lives, and already the effect of activists’ efforts are significant.
“Despite the regime’s effort to deter them, more and more North Koreans continue to access outside information, with approximately 70 per cent having seen content on a USB drive,” says Seong, quoting a statistic from a report by the North Korea Strategy Center.
Every USB that makes it into North Korea has the potential to change lives.
An added challenge
Smugglers importing and disseminating information in North Korea have taken tremendous risks for years. But now, activists on the southern side of the border could also face legal repercussions.“This year, there is an added challenge,” Seong says. “The South Korean government has passed legislation that criminalizes the act of sending information and remittances to North Korea starting on March 31, 2021.”
Activists and organizations such as Human Rights Watch have criticized the South Korean National Assembly and President Moon Jae-In for approving the new law, claiming that it violates citizens’ freedom of expression, and criminalizes participating in human rights activism. South Korean officials claim that the law is intended to maintain the safety of citizens living close to border regions.
The law seems to be a direct response to the work of activists who have been attaching flash drives, leaflets and other materials to balloons and launching them over the border, using favorable winds to ensure that their content has a decent chance of landing on North Korean soil.
“Last year in June, Kim Yo Jong – Kim Jong Un’s sister – publicly denounced the launching of those balloons, and then a few days later North Korea blew up the joint communications office,” Seong explains. “The South Korean government sees the new law as a continued effort to bring peace to the peninsula. But we view it as putting more pressure on our activists to deter them from carrying on.”
“The security problem around the border is not caused by the balloons,” Park says. “The security problem is the anger of the North Korean government. To use a slightly silly example: If South Koreans were wearing a lot of blue hats, and the North Korean government said, ‘We do not want you wearing those blue hats!’, we wouldn’t argue that the South Korean government should outlaw blue hats, right? It’s a fundamentally unreasonable demand by the North Korean government.”
Work goes on
Children line up in front of a mural in Pyongyang, North Korea. © Thomas Evans/Unsplash (crop)
For Seong and many of the North Korean refugees and activists who send information to the people of North Korea, giving up is not an option.South Korea’s new legislation may be an example of poor diplomatic strategy, and while it creates an added obstacle for activists, it will not stop the work of those determined to make information more accessible to the North Korean people.
South Korean authorities will gain the power to prosecute activists working along Korea’s 250 km demilitarized zone, but they have no authority over what takes place along North Korea’s 1,352 km border with China. Historically, locations along the Chinese-North Korean border have served as points of contact for trade between citizens from both nations. Additionally, some activists may be able to continue making contact via water routes.
Time will tell how far South Korean authorities are willing to go to enforce the new legislation on South Korean soil and in South Korean waters.
“Although we cannot disclose details of our activists’ strategy, we can confirm that they are determined to carry on their work,” says Seong.
According to Flash Drives for Freedom’s website, one hundred thousand USB sticks had been collected or pledged as of December 2020. If you would like to donate flash drives yourself, find out how to do so at FlashDrivesforFreedom.org.
